Misbegotten
by TheWritingMustache
Summary: It's been 5 years since the second Blacklight virus outbreak on Manhattan. Dana has since moved on from the city, retreating further into the country to live peacefully. That peace is shattered when the virus himself shows up at her door with...her brother. [Post P2 canon divergence AU]
1. Chapter 1

Before You Read:

~This is post prototype 2, canon divergence AU where Heller doesn't consume Alex  
~Alex and the blacklight virus are separate characters.  
~Alex in this story is the actual original Dr. Alex J. Mercer  
~The blacklight virus will be referred to as simply "Zeus" (when he finally gives himself that title)

 **x-X-X-x**

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Dana had never slammed a door shut so fast in her life. She didn't get many visitors this time of night, especially unannounced ones. And those visitors especially were _not_ that monster that masqueraded as her dead brother. Nope. Diiiidn't get that very often.

The doorbell rang again, and she jumped. No, please, no, don't, it couldn't be, there was no way-

"Dana," his gruff voice called through the oak that separated them. "Open. The. Fucking. Door."

She was dreaming, it had to be a dream, there was no this was actually happening. The last time Dana saw him was back in New York, the last thing she said to him, denouncing him as her brother, because Alex was dead and this _thing_ , this murderous, genocidal thing, was trying to get her on his side. And now he was here?

He was going to kill her. That must be why. After five years, he finally found her and came back to kill her out of revenge for her backstabbing him. That had to be it. There was nothing she could do. There was no Blackwatch, no Heller, nothing between her and him. This was the end.

"Dana," he said again through the door. "Dana, please, come on, this kid needs a real bed, open the hell up."

Ki-….Kid? Dana hesitated, not sure if she heard him right. He could be bluffing, trying to lure her outside so he could grab her better. But then again, if he really wanted to kill her, he would have done so. He wouldn't have come to the door at all. Dana tiptoed closer to peer out the peephole. He was standing there, an imposing figure half-covered in shadows, illuminated in the porch light. And yet, she could see in his arms, a small bundle with a tiny, pale hand clinging to his chest…

God, help her.

Slowly and carefully, Dana grabbed the door handle, and eased the door back open, poking her head out cautiously as she did. His face was passive, the half she could see from under that hood. But cradled in his arms was the unmistakable form of a small child.

"Can we come in now?" he asked her gruffly. With the feeling of dread still in the pit of her stomach, Dana opened the door all the way to allow him inside. She waited for the ruse to life, for him to come flying at her, to be lifted by her neck as he as he consumed her in outrage-

But it never happened. Instead, he just walked in through the doorway, and he shut the door behind him, the child easily balanced in one arm as he did. Dana backed away until her butt hit the back of the couch, unsure of where to go, what to do, and what to expect. He stared back at her, unmoving, unflinching, completely silent. The silence reigned between them until the child in his arms stirred with a small whimper. He moved and looked down at the child, and spoke to it with a surprisingly gentle voice.

"Hey kiddo, we're here. At your sister's, like I promised."

Uh…what? What?!

He shifted the child in his arms until it sat at his hip, its head wearily lifting off his shoulder. Dana's heart froze solid seeing the dark, curly mane atop its head, and the big, sky blue eyes that blinked sleepily. She had seen those before. That face especially. Only in a few, scant pictures that were up in her mother's attic, but she knew them. The child looked from its holder, to her, and they held contact with one another for what felt like an impossibly long time.

Those little blue eyes widened, that tiny mouth dropping open in surprise. The child looked up to its guradian, as if to ask, "is this real?"

"Yeah buddy," he nodded in confirmation. "That's your sis."

The child whipped its gaze back to her, and to Dana's surprise, its thin arms reached out for her, hands opening and closing in the air. Dana remained rooted to her spot, equally part shocked, equally part fearful. But the child looked so _desperate_ to get to her. Taking a deep breath, Dana pushed herself away from the back of the couch and approached the two. Her skin crawled when he handed the child to her and their hands briefly slipped past each other.

But she had the child now, and it wrapped its skinny arms around her neck and and buried its face into her shoulder. Dana lifted a hand to pat the back of its head, her fingers tangling in its curls. She looked up to him helplessly, tears starting to prick at the corners of her eyes as she awaited some sort of answer.

He didn't give her one. Just stared at her, ever impassive, until finally he said, "It's way past his bedtime, you should go put him down."

"Y-Yeah," Dana replied. "Sure."

"Yeah," he echoed back with a nod. "Take care of him, Dana."

He turned his back on them, his hand hand on the doorknob, and the door cracked open an inch when the child in Dana's eyes squirmed, and let out a loud whimper.

"Alex," he sighed. "I told you, I'm not saying."

The child lifted its head up to fix him with a unnaturally piecing gaze.

"Alex, please, you don't need me anymore," he said, looking to meet the child's eyes. Dana didn't know what happened from there, but moments later, he grumbled and shut the door. "Fine," he sighed in defeat.

"What the hell just happened?" Dana asked. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Look it's…It's complicated. Just…put him to bed, and I'll explain when you come back. Please, Dana?"

"Yeah, whatever," Dana huffed. "If you try to pull anything-"

" _Dana_ "

"Okay okaaaaay, god."

She finally turned around and carried the child down the hall to her room.

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 **x-X-X-x**

any burning questions you might have will be answered next chapter. seeeeeee you soon!


	2. Chapter 2

The child looked way too small for her bed. And it was just a normal queen size, but it practically disappeared under the blankets that Dana tucked around it. All that was left in the end was that head of messy curls. The child looked up at her with those unflinching eyes, and Dana stared back down, unsure of what to do here. Did it want a story? A goodnight kiss? She didn't know jack shit about kids, so why bring one to her of all people?!

"Uhh…Well just….uhm….close your eyes," Dana told it. "And uhhhh….I'll be back after I get done yelling at him. Okay?"

The child blinked up at her, but otherwise remained unmoving.

"Right cool, awesome, beeeeee right be back then!" she have it a thumbs up and backed out of the room. Then backed back in to grab the baseball bat out from under her bed, and then left the room for real. She could feel those eyes watching her the entire time. Dana returned back to the living room, bat held out in front of her protectively. He snorted when he saw her come out towards him with it.

"What do you think you're gonna do with that?" he asked her, the amusement clear in his voice.

"It's just in case you try anything, so watch it," Dana warned. He barked out a laugh at her.

"Oh please. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done so by now. So could you just relax and let me explain already?"

Dana crinkled his nose up at him, but she lowered the bat, just a tad, and said, "I'm listening."

"Great…Okay uh…Fuck," he sighed. "Okay so….That's your brother-"

"How can _that_ be my brother?"

"I-I will tell you if you let me _finish_ "

"Fiiiiine."

He sighed, took a deep breath, then continued.

"He was….born shortly after Manhattan….After Heller."

"Born hoooow?"

"You know…"

"No, I don't, that's why I asked."

"He just…came out?"

Dana gave him a look and exaggerated wave of one of her hands to ask him to clarify that a bit better.

"Came out of….me?"

"….What?!"

"Yes?"

"He just like…splorted out of you or some shit?"

"That's one way of describing it, yes."

"And you just concluded that it was my brother? My _dead_ brother."

"Well…Yeah. Cause he is."

The baseball bat clattered to the floor as Dana covered her face with both hands. This was too stupid. This was one hell of a distraction from trying to kill her. Okay well, even if he didn't wanna, it still made noooo sense.

"Okay listen…When you spend two years with the same voice in your head, the same mind, the same face…You'll know when they decided to "splort" out of you," He growled.

"That's sounds fair," Dana agreed. "But why bring him here? Why me?"

"There was no one else to take him to. No where else to go," He explained. "I-I-I just…I just figured if anyone knew him best, it'd be you."

Dana scoffed, cause bullshit she knew him best. If she had learned anything over the last seven years, it was that she didn't know a damn thing about Alex!

"Well what was wrong with…Wherever he was before?" Dana quirked a brow. "You had to be keeping him somewhere for the last few years…"

"Yeah, I did. It wasn't working," He grumbled. "You don't understand, it just…No matter where I took him, who I took him too…They just…God, Dana, the _things_ some of those people wanted to do to him. They kept looking at him like he was broken, and needed to be fixed. Cause his body wasn't right, his mind wasn't right, _nothing_ was right, and it was making him miserable and I couldn't….I couldn't let him go through that anymore. So I figured, I'l take him to someone who WOULD understand him, and I though that'd be you."

Silence punctuated the end of that statement. Dana wasn't sure if she truly understood what he meant, but she…She might have had a guess or two. She was guessing that somehow it had to do with the Blacklight virus, among other things. And there wasn't exactly single living person on the planet right now that had any real experience in controlling it, much less understanding it-

Except her.

It call came back down to her. While Dana maybe didn't understand the virus, she understood her brother to some degree. And it wasn't like she could take this little kid, drive him the two hours to her mother's and say "Congrats you're a mom again!"

No, no couldn't do that…

Fuuuuu-uuuuu-uuuuck! Dana sighed loudly as she rubbed at her temples, fuck fuck fuck fuu-uuuck!

"Okay, you're right," Dana said. "Yeah, I'll….I'll fucking keep him."

He sighed in relief, and cracked a small, but genuine? smile at her.

"Thanks Dana, I really appreciate this, I do….And I'm sure Alex does too-"

"Yeah okay so, about thaaaaaat," Dana interrupted. "If _his_ name is Alex, then what about you? You're not also Alex are you? And no, i'm not gonna call you 'Mercer' cause that's still my last name you know."

"Oh," He blinked. "Well….I'm not sure, I've gone pretty without far without a name…I let Alex take his back so I just…Well I guess," He grimaced before continuing on. "The only other name I've ever had is 'Zeus' so…"

"You can't be serious."

"Well, _Athena_ , got any brighter ideas?"

"…..Got me there, Zeus it is then….So what are you gonna do now?"

"Leave, like you wanted me to."

"And then what?"

"…Why does it matter to you? You were ready to beat my face in with a baseball bat. I know when I'm not wanted." Zeus sighed, and started to move towards the door. "Look, just take care of him, and don't worry about me. He's a great kid, I promise he is, he'll get used to you, I'm sure he- _Alex_."

Dana whipped around to see the little boy standing in hallway, wide awake, eyes scrunched up unhappily. Zeus barely had his hand on the doorknob, and the virus sighed loudly.

"No buddy, we talked about this, I can't-"

Alex's bottom lip started to waiver.

"Don't you try that on me, it's not gonna-"

Dana had never seen a child, much less a five year old, stare at someone with such pleading intensity. Zeus looked beside himself, hovering between "I should go" and "Listen here you-", and whatever battle the two of them seemed to be having (not a single word was exchanged other than Zeus sighing), until finally, Zeus threw his hands up and back away from the door.

"Change of plan," he groaned. "Alex wants me to stay."

"Wow really, I couldn't tell," Dana rolled her eyes, and looked back over to Alex, who looked way too smug for comfort. "Look kid, Boo Boo the Fool here and I have a pretty solid agreement about not seeing other each, like, ever. And I'm already starting to feel pretty bad for him at this point-"

"You were?"

"I meaaaaaan, kinda, but not really, I dunno, I'm still having issues with you know, you almost killing meeee and all that…"

"That was _years_ ago, and I'm _sorry_ about that."

"But see, noooow you're saying that, why couldn't you apologize before?"

"Because I was _dead_ in your eyes, and I was respecting that!"

"Ohhhh, you couldn't respect me befooooore all that, huh? Sounds more like a you problem, Alex-"

"We just established that's not-"

"STOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

Both Dana and Zeus reeled back from Alex's sudden outburst. His face was flushed, his hands clutched over his ears, a pained grimace on his face. If they had any extra arguments, it died on their lips. They shared a look with one another, a look that promised that this conversation wasn't over yet, but it could wait until later.

"I'm sorry Alex, it's way past your bedtime huh?" Dana said softly. Alex sniffled loudly and nodded, reaching up to her again now. She bent down to scoop him back up, and said over her shoulder, "You can have the couch Zeus….For now. Goodnight."

She marched back off to her room, child in her arms, who waved goodbye to the virus as they did. This time, Dana made sure Alex was tucked in bed, and stayed there, deciding to call it quits for the night and get to bed herself.

Not that she could really sleep. Everything felt so surreal, Ale- _Zeus_ showing up at her doorstep, actual five year old brother Alex in his arms, who was now dozing beside her with the latter in the living room still. She didn't know how to feel about this now that it hit her.

Should she feel relieved that Zeus didn't kill her? Grateful she was somehow being given a second chance at reconnecting with her brother? Weirded out overall? Dana felt tired thinking about it, and yet, all her paranoia came crawling back to her, and left her with a night of barely any rest.

Everything had been looking so nice, things going relatively well. A stable job doing freelance journalism with various website, a house of her own, living in such a nice, quiet little time. Sometimes it almost felt like the outbreak had never happened, like it was all a bad dream.

Cause boy oh boy, was it a part of her dreams. Dana had them every now and then, nightmares of hunters smashing through her walls to snatch her away, Elizabeth Greene's sickly sweet face grinning down at her, the Hive, hearing those voices…So many voices…

Then _him_ , claws on both hands, stalking her down like a wolf after a deer. Those were the worst, where it felt like she was paralyzed and couldn't run, and all Dana could do was watch as he came closer and closer, razor sharp claw tips ripping into her stomach like it was tissue paper-

Dana jerked awake what was probably the tenth time that night, except now it was morning, her room was illuminated in a soft blue-gray. She couldn't begin fathom what time it was, and she was afraid to look. Hell, she would have just called it quits, gotten up and made coffee, but the fear of running into Zeus this early kept her in bed.

Instead, she rolled over to look at Alex. He was tucked up into a small ball on his side of the bed, thumb hanging loosely out of his mouth. Dana smiled softly, finding this to be all too familiar to her. How many times had she crawled into her brother's bed in the middle of the night because of the monsters she feared in her closer, or under her bed? Now it almost seemed like Alex had done the same, had she not tucked him into bed herself.

And, well, if her monster wasn't just outside her bedroom door in the living room.

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 **x-X-X-x**

thanks to everyone for reading so far!


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